Mike

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Day 15 & 16 – Not sure when one stops and the next starts

August 13, 2015

As the title may imply, I’m not really sure when day 15 (yesterday) and day 16 (today) starts/ends. For that reason I’ll post about both days and maybe you can help me figure it out.

Yesterday I woke up in Deadwood, SD right outside of Sturgis. I rolled out early because it was going to be the start of a long day. I first drove through the towns of Deadwood, Lead and Sturgis. I attempted to take some pictures from the car as I went through but realized it was a little too dangerous with all of the people walking around. From there I made my way toward Mt. Rushmore.

On the way I saw a sign for a place called “Bear Country.” There was several rows of cars at the gate so I said what the heck and got in line too. HA! I didn’t even have any idea as to what I was going to be doing/seeing. I finally got to the front of the line and was instructed to keep my windows up through out the drive. Yeah that didn’t happen much. Anyway, I followed a line of cars across a winding road that led from one group of animals to another. As we approached the “bear den” I saw tons of electric fence and an outpost on the horizon with a guard in it. Insert flashbacks from every Jurassic Park movie here. I knew where this was going. Thankfully, I drove through unharmed. Truthfully though, it was a waste of $16 in my opinion. I mean I was hoping to at least make it on YouTube as one of those fools that gets a giraffe head in the window of the car…. or something. On the way out you could park and go in the baby sanctuary of all the small animals. Well I had places to be so didn’t stop. I did notice LOTS of out of state vehicles parked there though. I saw license plates for Kentucky, Nebraska, Wyoming, Michigan, South Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin and Texas. Well those are the ones I remember. I’m sure a lot of these people were there for Sturgis and just happened to drive through like I did.

Back on the road and off to see Mount Rushmore. I was advised the night before by a wise man not to park or I would be scammed out of $11. LOL! He told me to do like everyone else and park on the road. That’s exactly what I did. I took a couple pictures of Mount Rushmore and one of nearby Horsethief Lake.

Now it was time to make some decisions. I was scheduled to make two more stops before heading back to Lexington, KY. I really didn’t have anything to do in the areas I was going to be stopping in so…. let’s go out with a bang. I’ll attempt to drive 19 hours (1,312 miles) from Mount Rushmore in South Dakota to Lexington, Kentucky. Thus the reason the days started running together. I fueled up and took off like a crazed maniac. Around 11 hours in I was pretty exhausted. Only stopping once or twice during that time I was stiff as all get out too. I’m not giving up that easy though. I pulled in a rest area, went to sleep in the car for about 5 hours and hit the rode again. I finished up the remaining 8 or so hours to end up here in Lexington today. Exhausting!!

Oh and I kept seeing signs for a place called Wall Drug. Yeah, I was suckered in. Glad I was because I had a delicious meal there that really helped to fuel my journey ahead. The drugstore originally opened in 1931.

Day 14 – I survived the night!!!

August 12, 2015

Shortly after crashing last night I was abruptly awoken by a tree limb crashing into the tent. Well…. maybe it was more like a twig. Still you know how it is when a little noise sounds HUGE when you are asleep. The wind was crazy all night and stuff was going everywhere. I was waiting for my chance to describe what the tornado sounded like on the news.

I finally got back to sleep when a car door slammed and woke me back up. No big deal, I’ll roll over and continue sleeping. WRONG!!! Apparently my wonderful neighbors down the way must have spilled an entire bag of M&M’s in their vehicle. Then proceeded to remove them one by one while closing the door in between sessions of removal. About 276 door slams later it ceased. Maybe the door finally broke off the hinge. Fingers crossed.

Waking up again to actually start the day wasn’t that bad. I showered and found a quarter in the gravel beside my car. Maybe that’s what my neighbors were looking for. I hit Denny’s for breakfast. While there I utilized the time to eat and catch up on work.

The first stop on the agenda was Pictograph State Park in Montana. It was just a few minutes down the road. Apparently rattlesnakes are bad there but all I saw was two rabbits and a frog. HA!

Back on the road again for me. I headed out towards South Dakota on 212 east. On the way I saw some interesting things on the side of the road. Enjoy the pics of that mess…

I ended up tonight at a KOA in Deadwood, SD. I’m going to explore this little “gold mine” of a town some tomorrow before moving on out towards Mt. Rushmore. While here I’ve ran into some really nice people. A biker from Kansas chatted with me for a bit and also a guy from Tennessee. Funny thing is the gentleman from Tennessee used to live in Lexington, KY with his wife.

Day 13 – Montana Feels Like Home

August 11, 2015

Yesterday after an amazing day around Mt. Rainier I drove on to my next stop. That landed me in Missoula, MT. I figured I deserved a comfy bed for a night and a long hot shower with some privacy. Always feels weird taking a shower with a dude next to me doing the same thing.

Anyway, on to today. I woke up at the hotel this morning to dig in to their “hot breakfast” that was all over the place. I would have preferred eating a frozen dinner over this hot breakfast. I opted for a couple prepackaged muffins they had sitting out and some nasty coffee. I’m certainly not a coffee snob but this stuff was nasty.

I returned to the room to finish up some work. Yeah I’m working while on this road trip. I knew I was going to prior to leaving so it’s no big deal. As weird as it sounds it doesn’t feel normal not to check email and respond to client requests.

After putting in a couple hours I was on the road. First stop of the day CITY BREW! From there I got on Interstate 90 and headed east. Nothing special really today.

Mid-afternoon I arrived at my destination for the night, Yellowstone River RV Resort & Campground. I was going to stay at the KOA that is literally across the street but once again they were full. Starting to get let down by these KOA’s. In their defense I am attempting to book my stay the day of. I like to fly by the seat of my pants obviously. I’m actually surprised so much has came together for me considering each day I wake up with no real agenda.

I searched for some things in the area that were close. I found one place that looks interesting but just my luck they closed in 30 minutes from the time I was looking. Oh and it was 22 minutes away. I’ll keep it under wraps for now because I’ll probably hit it tomorrow morning on my way out.

Now on to why Montana feels like home… Nothing special or interesting has took place in Montana, I’ve been working this morning and this afternoon, I’ve cleaned the car out some, ran to Walgreens to restock on water/etc and I’ve done laundry. Today was a productive day but not in terms of adventure. I have met some nice people today though. This morning at the hotel a guy was telling me about Glacier National Park in Montana. It looks amazing but it was a little out of my way. That’s the worst part about this trip, passing up so many good things. Hmmmmm….. maybe there needs to be a sequel? While doing laundry I did have a nice chat with a lady from Texas. The topic for conversation was you guessed it…. website stuff. I’m a nerd. UGG!!

Tomorrow I’ll shower and hit the road early. I want to go check a place out real quick before I leave Montana then it’s off to South Dakota. It’s crazy that it’s day 13 already. In about 2 hours it will be day fourteen.

Mileage update: I’ve driven 5,200 miles so far and used 122.64 gallons of diesel for an average of 42.4 MPG. I personally think those number are amazing considering this includes tons of stop/go traffic, highway and city driving, driving up big mountains including Pikes Peak and not always obeying the “suggested” speed limit on the highway. Diesel has been cheap everywhere I have filled up. By cheap I mean it is the same out here as it has been back in Kentucky for the most part. I filled up today and it was $2.56/gallon. To make it easy math if I average $3/gal (way high number) I would only spent $367 in fuel or $28 a day. I think I could panhandle $28. Now there is an idea…

Day 12 – Mt. Rainier

August 10, 2015

I woke up today in the parking lot of the National Park Inn. Does that qualify for staying there? Yeah everything in the Mt. Rainier area was booked up but it wasn’t going to stop me. I found a coke in the Yeti and grabbed a KIND bar from my box of treats then started the day. The first thing I did was head to the top of the mountain. Well as far as I could go on the road. I realized on the way up that I was the only one out and about. All of the gift shops and information centers were still closed. This still didn’t stop me. Once at the top of Paradise I noticed I was extremely low on fuel. With the closest gas station about 40 miles away I took off down the mountain. Did I mention it was only 48 degrees?

On my way down I debated on what to do next. Should I head to Montana as planned? Should I fuel up and go back? Well I fueled up and went back. I explored Mt. Rainier for about 5 or 6 hours before hitting the road toward Montana. I was able to hike a few smaller trails to capture some amazing pictures of waterfalls and took a couple videos too.

[themify_video src=”https://youtu.be/A4XeWbJaJpw” ]

[themify_video src=”https://youtu.be/RnJOqfV3ZSk” ]

[themify_video src=”https://youtu.be/1dDnyjWhD1g” ]

These pictures are of Mt. Rainier from a distance and from as close as I go to it. Well and another mountain range on the opposite side of it. I’ve said a handful of times that I’d like to summit Mt. Rainier. After seeing it in person that urge has gotten a lot stronger. I think my next big adventure will be conquering this guy!

I added a couple pictures from the Paradise Visitor Center because I thought they were neat.

Day 11 – 3 States In 1 Day, Holy Moly Guacamole

August 10, 2015

I’m a day late posting this blog… Very apologetic but you’ll understand why soon.

I woke up in Cali (yeah I’m cool and can say Cali now) around 6am. I honestly didn’t want to get out of the hammock. It sleeps better than most hotel beds. Knowing I had an adventure in front of me I squared up, put my shoes on and proceeded to get out of the hammock. Well or so I thought. I actually ended up tumbling out of it somehow. Yeah, I still don’t know.

Any who, with my pride still on the ground I picked myself up and made breakfast. Which consisted of some Black Rifle Coffee and Oatmeal. I guess I’m a creature of habit. While waiting for breakfast to cool down I started Googling things to do in Oregon, which was my next stop. I found a website with the 7 wonders of Oregon. A couple of them were close to my route so I said what the heck. Let’s go!

My first stop was Crater Lake. Yeah I didn’t know anything about it so I’ll give you a little history lesson… Crater Lake is a caldera lake in the western United States, located in south-central Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a nearly 2,148-foot (655 m)-deep caldera that was formed around 7,700 (± 150) years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. There are no rivers flowing into or out of the lake; the evaporation is compensated for by rain and snowfall at a rate such that the total amount of water is replaced every 250 years. At 1,943 feet (592 m), the lake is the deepest in the United States, and the seventh or ninth deepest in the world, depending on whether average or maximum depth is measured. Yep that was from Google. Still neat though.

From there I headed on to another one of Oregon’s 7 wonders, Mt. Hood. It’s normally a ski slope I guess. With no snow on the mountain other than the summit I proceeded to hike up it. Shew talk about a journey. The closer I thought I was getting to the base of the summit the further away it looked. It was like trying to hike up a beach if that makes any sense. The coarse rock was so loose it was sliding right out from under my feet. I still managed to capture a few good pictures though. On my way back down the mountain I pulled into a little spot that I thought was a pull off but turned out to be a road. The gate was open so I continued on. I ended up running into a bunch of little campsites and thought about just putting the tent up there.

So I did a quick Google to see how far I was from my next stop. Little did I know I was only 3 hours away and I wasn’t tired. Truck on! I headed out towards Mt. Rainier in Washington. I knew I’d be there late so I fueled the car up and got me some Taco Bell. Needless to say the last hour of the trip was a struggle. However, I did get there. Well to find out that every single campsite, hotel, motel, lodge, church, abandon building… etc. was taken. Well I went this far so I wasn’t going to stop. I drove into the park and even put money in the automated machine to get a ticket. I guess I could have bypassed it but I’m somewhat of an honest guy. With all the campsites full I pulled into a parking lot with several other cars and crashed. Yep, slept in the black jelly bean for 5 hours or so.

In the park I didn’t get any service at all. Thus the reason I didn’t post anything yesterday nor today. Well until I could get somewhere with service.

Day 10 – California, South to North

August 8, 2015

Tonight will be my last night in California. It has been a blast. I really love this state. It’s crazy how much it changes as you head north. I’m actually in an area tonight where I can use the ENO hammock. The past few nights I’ve been forced to stay in the tent for the lack of trees.

I didn’t explore any today so I don’t have any cool pics tonight. I ate breakfast at Denny’s and ordered the grand slam… Little did I know on the receipt it says Invisible Woman Slam… WTF MATE? For lunch I met some clients in the Modesto area. It was great seeing them in person after working with them for several years. Very nice group of people and I love working for them.

Tonight I’m staying in Mt. Shasta City, California. Apparently there are some trails around here and a beautiful lake. I caught a glimpse of it on my way to the KOA. Unfortunately my time in Cali is up and I must head to Oregon for more adventures. Currently looking on Google for places to stay/hike in Oregon. Wish me luck!

Day 9 – Hiking 15 Miles in Yosemite

August 7, 2015

Talk about some more of a day. Today was that day! I woke up around 6:30 and got ready. Boiled some water in a hurry for coffee and oatmeal. Yeah I was a little excited to go to Yosemite.

The drive to Yosemite was rather fun with all the twists and turns. I ran into a little construction along the way that held up my progress some. I still got to the parking area for my trail around 10:30 or so. I set out with 4 liters of water, a mountain house meal, peanut butter and crackers. Well and a few other things but that’s the main stuff I cared about. LOL!

I planned to hike the Yosemite Valley Loop trail. Which I did and then some. The trail is around 13 miles but several parts of it aren’t marked very well. So I may or may not have hiked a couple extra miles out of the way. HA! It was all worth it though. The views along this trails and in the park in general are indescribable. Looking at these pictures now as I upload them doesn’t even compare to standing there in front of the sights.

This loop trail is really just a combination of several smaller trails. It was interesting along the way. At times I would be in the middle of a very dense wooded area then to an open field. Some of the trails went through areas of huge rocks while others went across sandy river banks. Yeah I felt like my hike may have been a little bipolar. HA!

There was so much wildlife too. I tried to take pictures of most of it but some of the little guys scampered off before I could get my phone out. The squirrels and deer though seemed to not mind at all. One little gray squirrel almost came up to me while I was sitting down eating lunch. Shoot and a deer was chilling beside the road eating. Too bad I didn’t see a bear. Oh and the mules!!! I kept seeing what I thought was horse poop everywhere along the trails. Well a few miles later I run into the culprit…. About 15 mules. I guess you could get a guided tour of the trails while riding a mule. Seems neat but I prefer my two feet. Well that’s what I thought at the time. Towards the end of the hike I would have rode on anything.

Man this was a long hike. Totally worth it though. Towards the end I was really feeling it. With about 3 miles left to go I said hey I need a break. I walked down to a river bank and cooked dinner. While chilling and eating a few guys came up and said man that’s so cool that you just boiled your water and made your food. After talking for 0.2 seconds they figured out I wasn’t from California. I told them I was from Kentucky and they thought it was the best thing ever to go on a road trip around the states. They wished me safe travels and off they went. I finished dinner and headed on out for my last 3 miles.

Those last 3 miles were probably the hardest 3 miles I’ve ever hiked. No clue as to why either. Maybe it was the fact that I was pushing 15 miles, the elevation, I was hiking alone, the heat….. OR ALL OF THE ABOVE. The crazy thing is as I’m typing this I’d do it again. Well the blisters on my feet are saying otherwise but hey they will get over it… right?

Oh and did I mention I figured out how to get a free guided tour? On the way out I got behind a guided tour thing. So I turned off the Sirius XM to listen in. Very informative! I almost felt guilty and wanted to tip the guy for doing such a good job. HA!

Well back to my dinner, top ramen and tuna. Yeah I’m a fat kid and eating again. I need to replenish my calories, right? Enjoy the pictures and be sure to look at all of them.

Day 8 – Past, Present and Future

August 6, 2015

I’ll elaborate a little more on yesterday, talk about today and my plans for tomorrow. I figured since I was so short yesterday I’ll talk about a little bit of everything tonight. HAHA!

The drive from Nevada to California yesterday was full of mountains and desert. Here are a few pictures from my drive and also a few pictures of the Loews Coronado Bay Resort I stayed in last night. One thing to note in the pictures is the huge solar-thermal power plant I passed in the Mojave desert. A quick Google and I learned that it is the largest solar power plant of its type in the world. I didn’t even know what it was at first except it was blinding the you know what out of me. I didn’t know if I was under attack from aliens in the sky or what.

Now for today…. Welp I woke up (obviously) and started working. I had to get caught up on email before it got out of control. From there I ate sandwich for breakfast and had some Starbucks. Oh and did I mention that I did this while sitting outside looking into the bay… hehe.

I went ahead and moved everything down from my room into the car then went out to explore. This way when I got back all I had to do was get in the car and drive. While loading up I noticed a car in front of me with their door open. I assumed that it was someone close by packing up so I didn’t think anything about it.

I took off walking around the beach. Coronado Island is such a pretty place. I had to write #6KADVENTURE in the sand ya’ know.

With time running out I reluctantly returned back to my black jelly bean to embark on another 6 hour adventure. Traffic wasn’t too bad and I made it to the KOA at a decent time. I traveled through Los Angeles, Bakersfield and Fresno on my way to this KOA in Yosemite. While checking in here I found out that the owner of the KOA is from Perryville, KY. Very nice guy. Must have been the Kentucky coming out in him. I also ran into a lady who is doing a similar road trip. She is going alone just like me only we are going in opposite directions. As I head north in California she is going south. Then on to the places I just came from.

Few pictures from the drive today, around the resort and my setup here at the Yosemite KOA.

Tomorrow I’ll be hiking Yosemite all day. I should have some good pictures for you guys and gals tomorrow evening.

Day 7 – Living The SoCal Dream

August 5, 2015

Today was a little crazy. Well mainly because of the traffic. I didn’t do much other than drive from Las Vegas to Coronado Island in California. The trip wasn’t suppose to be that long but after hitting a bunch of construction and multiple traffic accidents it made for a long day. I got here to the resort and pretty much just crashed. I took a few pictures but not many. I’m going to explore tomorrow and I’ll upload all the pictures tomorrow. Too tired to write a decent post but didn’t want to leave out one.

Day 6 – New Friends and High Roller Status

August 4, 2015

Yesterday was one of the best days I’ve had on this trip so far. Not sure if I can say it was the actual best but it was close even though I’m just 5 days in. Well 6 if you count now. I was out a little late last night so I’m just now writing the post for yesterday.

I woke up around 6:30 or so to take a shower at the campground in Moab, UT before too many people got to stirring. I started taking down the tent/hammock and said goodbye to my neighbors for the night as they headed out on the rode. I don’t think I told you about them. Super nice and friendly couple that were doing something similar to what I was doing only on a motorcycle. They were from Georgia. The husband had already been out for a few weeks and the wife flew in to Salt Lake City to meet him. In conversation I found out their son actually lives in Richmond, KY. Small world for sure.

It was raining a decent amount the night before so everything was still wet. This made for packing up a bit of a mess to say the least. No worries though. I just rolled with it. Once everything was packed and situated in the car I double-checked that I had everything. Well this is were the problems started. I LOST MY WALLET!!!! Scrambling to think when I had it last I remembered taking it out of my pocket while setting in the tent. I was like no way you’ve got to be kidding me…. Is it still in the tent? So unpacking the wet, muddy, nasty tent began. On the bright side I found my wallet in the tent. HA!

Before leaving Moab I wanted to explore some more. I saw a very built off road rig the day before. It had a number on it and said they did “extreme tours.” A little Google-Fu led me to their website where sure enough it looked like they did some awesome tours of Moab. They actually hit some legit hard trails and they weren’t your average scenic Jeep/Hummer tour. Unfortunately for me they were booked up and I couldn’t get a reservation. Instead I went to Canyonlands National Park. A few pictures from Canyonlands:

Well it was back on the road for me. Off to fabulous Las Vegas! On the way I stopped at Denny’s to grab some breakfast since I left camp before making anything. The views from the interstate while traveling from Utah to Arizona and on into Nevada were nothing shy of breathtaking. Boy was it hot when I got into Arizona and Nevada. The temperature display in the car said 115 degrees at one point.

Once getting to Las Vegas I came to the Green Valley Ranch Resort. It’s a little off the strip and out of the hustle and bustle. This is the first time I’ve stayed here and it certainly didn’t let me done. Granted I didn’t expect much considering It was a $50 express deal on Priceline. I was impressed. Shoot I’d stay here again that’s for sure.

I unpacked some of my things in the room and got the good ol’ MacBook out. Wanted to check some email to see if anything needed attention and such. While looking on Facebook I found a message in my “other” inbox from Catherine Williamson. I responded and found out that the Williamson family had spotted me in Colorado Springs. They are moving from Palm Bay, FL to Colorado Springs, CO. They Google’d 6K Adventure and found me. Well they found the blog and found my IG/FB pages. Super cool how a little hashtag can connect people from all over that just might be on a similar journey. With her permission I’ll attache some screenshots of our conversation and the images she sent.

With that making me smile and putting me in a good mood I figured it was time to hit the Vegas Strip. I mainly just did the tourist thing. I walked around took some pictures and people watched some. I did sit for a while and watch a handful of street performers. It’s crazy how some of these people are legit talented.

One stop along the way was at the Cosmopolitan. The last time I was in Vegas I stayed there so I figured I take a couple pictures of it and hit a slot machine. As most of you know I’m not really a big gamblers. Shoot I could spend more in an arcade then I could a casino. None the less you know how it goes… when in Rome. I put a 20 in a random slot machine and boom 3 button clicks later I had $29.00. Not wanting to push my luck I cashed out my ticket and was heading to the cashier when another slot machine caught my eye. Yeah it was Monopoly. I said what the heck I’m up 9 bucks anyway. Well as luck would have it I’m hitting the max bet button repeatedly only to find I’m now down $3…. but wait a minute what was that??? I hit something big and BOOM I’m back up to $54.02. Yep I’m cashing out now for real.

I walked around the strip some more then got a Taxi back to Green Valley Ranch Resort. I wanted some food before I crashed so I went to a place here in the hotel called Fatburger. While there I saw one of those cheesy 5 card draw pocker machines so I figured I’d put a dollar in it. I mean I am a high roller now with my 54 bucks. It was a quarter per hand and on my last quarter from the dollar I hit big again…. Well I got $1.50 and cashed it out. Now I’m feeling the gambling urge. What in the world is this? And where is my burger? I need to get food and get out of here before I lose the house. I take my freshly printed $1.50 ticket and put it in another slot machine. Once again a few clicks later and I’m up to $6.75 so what do I do? Cash out!! Until I get pulled back into another slot machine to go up even more. Now I’m sitting at $21.75 from an initial $1 investment. What the heck man lets put it in another one. So that’s exactly what I did. It wasn’t long before I was down to $8. My gigantic winning streak and thoughts of new cars, houses, boat etc was slowly fading before my eyes. I told myself I would play until I got back down to $1 then call it a night. Needless to say a few max spins later I hit some sort of free spins something another and the silly slot machine just started spinning for me. 19 free spins later I’m up to $201.15. I immediatlely cash out and go to my room. LOL! Should I have played more? No clue!

All in all Vegas was good to me. I actually won enough to make this a 100% free trip. Off to San Diego now!

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